▶Date of birth:  6 June 1878        Place of birth: Barnoldswick, Yorkshire

▶Father:   Richard Kendall    Mother: Nancy Jane Bailey

▶Spouse(s):  (1) Edith Carrie Reeson; (2) Elsie Frances Hine    Date(s) of marriage: (1) 4Q 1909; (2) 5 February 1924      Place(s) of marriage: (1) Durham; (2) Ryecroft Wesleyan Church, Gloucester

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist Minister); earlier Cotton-weaver, Dental assistant

▶Lifestory: The Revd. Ezra Kendall was almost fifty when he came to Cheltenham as Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist circuit in the district. He was born in 1878 at Barnardswick in Yorkshire, the third son of dentist Richard Kendall, and his wife Nancy Jane (née Bailey); both of his parents were Wesleyan Methodists. Kendall was brought up in his native Barnoldswick, and at the age of twelve, at the time of the 1891 census, he was employed as a cotton-weaver, and ten years later, in 1901, he was a dental assistant to his father. The following year he entered into the Wesleyan Methodist ministry; he was recommended as a candidate minister to the Wesleyan Synod held in July, and was stationed as an Additional Minister at Christchurch and Lymington, Hampshire.

He qualified as a Minister in 1905. Between 1906 and 1908 he was allocated to the Newcastle on Tyne district at Gateshead (High West Street), and between 1909-11 to Crook in Durham; he married Edith Carrie, daughter of shoemaker John Reeson, in Durham in 1909, and the couple had two sons and two daughters. In 1912 he was stationed in the Preston, Lancashire district, where he was based at Ashton-on-Ribble. By this time he was gaining a reputation as an engaging preacher, and was a high demand.

After a long stay in Lancashire, during the Great War, he was moved to Gloucester in 1917, having served twelve years as a Minister in the Wesleyan Church, and was based at Ryecroft Church. The Revd. Kendall was fined five shillings for riding his bicycle in Gloucester without a rear light; he refused to pay the fine (saying that the law had changed and he was not aware of the current rules) and was informed that the alternative was seven days’ imprisonment, to which he responded “I will go down”, but this was not required as a well-wisher paid his fine.

In 1920 he and his wife lived at Weston Road in Gloucester, but later in the year transferred to the Ebenezer Wesleyan Church at Bedminster, Bristol. Here he was credited with doing “original work along original lines, seeking “to apply the social implications of the gospel to his message and methods”. In 1923 he transferred to Maindee, Newport, Monmouthshire. After the death of his wife in 1922 he married again, in 1924, to Elsie Frances, only daughter of William Henry Hine, of 7 May Hill Villas, Tuffley, Gloucestershire, in Gloucester.

He was transferred in 1926 as Superintendent Minister to the Cheltenham district, where he continued his active involvement in preaching and lecturing; between 1926 and 1933 he lived at 2 Clarence Square, Pittville. In 1933 he finally left his position in Cheltenham to become Superintendent of St Mary’s Methodist circuit in Truro in Cornwall; when he left Cheltenham he and his wife were presented, amongst other things, with “an Austin  Seven saloon motor car, in commemoration of their seven years’ ministry”. He returned to Cheltenham General Hospital briefly in 1934 to have his appendix removed.

In 1936 the Revd. Kendall was moved again, this time to Witney in Oxfordshire; at the time of the 1939 national register he and his family lived at 104 High Street, Witney. He retired from active ministry in 1942, and then accepted an invitation to assist as a Supernumerary Minister at Winchcombe and district, and in 1944 was assisting at Whaddon Methodist Church, where he continued as a Supernumerary for the Cheltenham circuit.

The Revd. Kendall finally retired from the ministry in 1949, though he continued to preach and assist when asked. He lived then at 44 Cakebridge Road, near Pittville in Cheltenham, where he died in early 1952, at the age of seventy-three. His estate at death was valued at just over £3,910.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  (1) Newport, Monmouthshire; (2) Witney      Moved from Pittville to: (1) Truro; (2) Deceased

▶Date of death:  2 January 1952      Place of death: Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 14867

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden